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2010-08-18: There's No Such Thing as Cheating
Summary: Speedy runs into Huntress in a bad part of town (but then, it's Gotham, so that's... most of the town). Participants: Speedy, Huntress Location: Bryantown, Gotham City Rating: PG-13 for violence and talk of prostitution. Bryantown is no place for a young woman to be alone, even in the early evening, when the sun has yet to do much more than dim slightly. But this young woman is at least wearing a lightly armoured costume of some sort (black, with yellow detailing and hooded cape), and has no shortage of sharp and pointy objects, and the weapon to fire them with. For the moment, though, she's perched on a rooftop, watching through one of the few windows on the next building over that isn't boarded over. The glass is missing too, save for a few shards around the edges, which makes it that much easier for the young archer to watch, waiting for... something, apparently. And above Speedy on yet another building looms a cloaked figure with a pointy shadow. Fortunately(?), the figure isn't the typical vigilante that looms over people in Gotham. Rather than the Bat, it's the Huntress. Being slightly more social than Batman, she doesn't immediately confront the girl but waits to see what she's doing and what brings her here. Helena waits patiently, as silent as the grave and just as still. It doesn't take long for Speedy to spot her target. The door to the room she's watching opens, and a man enters, practically dragging a girl of about fifteen, if that, in with him. When he lets go and closes the door, she sort of stumbles for a few steps, and, finding a lack of furniture, simply sits down on the floor, as if she can't hold herself steady. There's a tensing in Speedy's body as she reaches for an arrow from her quiver. No fancy trick arrow, but the real, razor-tipped deal. She nocks it, and holds it for a few moments before she has the shot lined up. The arrow flies through the air and into the room, and catches the fabric of his shirt over his sholder. Speedy lines up and fires another, so that he's held at both sides before finally firing a grappling line into the apartment, and sliding in. Huntress considers the situation a moment, before standing up and taking a few steps back. And then, with an running leap, she throws herself off the top of the building she's on, cape rippling as she lands on the spot Speedy just vacated, landing and flowing into a roll that ends with her in a crouched position. Her crossbow is unclasped from her thigh with one hand and flicked open while the other hovers over a small quiver attached to her back, waiting to see how the younger, smaller archer reacts before she comes bursting in. Until, of course, she spots someone pop in from another room with a gun drawn, another man behind him with a knife. Then the Huntress fires a grapple hook of her own and swings into the apartment, her clunky heeled boots first and hitting the guy with the gun in the back. And the guy with the knife? Well. Let's just say that the Huntress shows how quickly she can reload her crossbow. And fires a bolt into his leg from quarter-cocked, sending him sprawling to the ground with a bolt sticking out of his leg. Accessory of the season, that! Speedy jumps with a bit of a start! But once it becomes obvious the woman in the stylish pointy mask (why didn't she consider something like that?) is on her side, she drops right back into the fight with little hesitation. She kicks the gun out of reach of the men, and since a recurve bow isn't exactly the best "indoor weapon," she instead makes use of it more like a bo staff, hitting the gunman on the ground hard enough to daze him. The knife-wielder with the bolt in his leg is struck with an arrow that she just opts to 'stab' into his lower back back with her hand- though it prooves to have a blunt tip... that releases enough voltage into him to leave him twitching for a while. Once she feels confident that the two newcommers are downed, between the strange woman's actions and her own, she approaches her original target, the stunned-looking man still pinned to the wall. With one hand, she presses her bow against his chest, and the other holds the business end of an arrow... somewhat lower. "I'm going to let you go. Because you're going to tell all your little sleezebag friends that this shit," she points at the girl on the floor, now cowering in the corner, "is not going to fly. Your girls are all gonna be old enough to vote, or your softest, squishiest parts are going to be my new pincushions. Got it?!" Huntress? For her part, she simply glances over at the exchange and draws a wicked-looking hunting knife. Amazing how intimidating it can be to draw a knife while wearing a stylishly pointy mask.. Especially when you add a significant look. Then the Huntress is bending over the prey she shot in the leg, and looks down at him writhing on the floor with her bolt in his leg. In classic Gotham style, she then knocks him out with the hilt of her knife, zip-ties a tournequet over his leg and pulls out the bolt. She then straightens up, cool as a cucumber and still silent to loom over Speedy's shoulder. Loom! LOOM! The looming is probably helping, considering Mia's about 5'3 inches and a hundred and fifteen pounds. Intimidation is not her strong point. The strong point she's threatening to shove into the guy's groin is pronbably helping to. For the moment, she doesn't show any sign of not knowing Huntress. Let the guy think they're a team. He makes a few gibbering, pleading noises, but he nods and makes a sound that might be him agreeing to deliver her message. Begrudgingly, she pulls the arrows from the wall, and lets him run out the door, off to whatever rock he crawled out from under. Speedy looks between Huntress and the terrified girl in the corner, and then back again. "If this is going to be one of those things were two masked crime fighters meet and assume the other is the enemy, and start wailing on each other, can you give me a minute to get the girl out of here before you make with the butt kicking?" Know what's worse than looming in a stylishly pointy mask while holding a bloody crossbow bolt? Smiling. The Huntress offers a quick, tight, predator grin at Mia's words. "I never was one for rules. But if anyone asks, I'll tell them you gave me a mighty thrashing." She promises solemnly, before turning to deliver a swift kick in the balls to the guy that had the gun as he gets up, drawing that knife again and *looking* at him. He promptly follows the other guy out into the streets, while the guy with the knife and bolt wound just kinda lays there. Bleeding. "Even if I lose vigilante points for it, it'd be worth it to see these bottom feeders get humiliated, much less the reaction when Signor Maroni finds out capes are taking an interest in his little operation." Mia reaches into the pockets of the guy on the floor, finding a roll of bills. She crouches down by the girl, and hands her the money, along with a card pulled from a pocket on her quiver. "Get a cab, tell the driver to take you here. It'll be safe, and they'll help you get clean, too." The girl leaves, taking the money and the card, which... is at least something. Whether she uses it for what Speedy suggested, or spends it on drugs is anyone's guess. "Your secret's safe with me. Mostly because I have no idea who you are," she admits to Huntress after turning to face her. "I don't see any bats on you, but you've definitely got that dark and intimidating Gotham chic going for you." She switched her costume from red to black just for Gotham, herself. "Thank you." Now that the asskicking is done with, the Huntress appears almost awkward. She then begins to clean the bolt before putting it away. "No, I'm not a bat. I'm more of a huntress." She then gives Speedy a cool once-over. "And you? You don't have a bat on you either. I haven't encountered Batman yet, but I hear he doesn't like people muscling in on his turf." "Speedy. I work with Green Arrow. He's got a habit of doing things Batman doesn't like," says the spritely blonde with the bow. "This," she points to the guy on the floor, then the room around her, "is more of a personal project. Pimps recruit the girls when they're younger, they're easier to control. I want to make as many of 'em as possible to know it's not worth the risk," she says, with a bit of a shrug. "The Bat's got bigger things to worry about than some small time hustlers. Those drugs going around turning people into monsters, killer clowns... he can have all that stuff. Guess I take after the boss. Protect the little guy... or girl, as it may be." "Green Arrow? Is he the one with the silly little forked beard?" So sayeth the tall, athletic brunette with the crossbow, prowling around the room. She pauses here and there to poke stuff with her foot or lift something else. "I'd call what you do looking ahead. Small time pimps sometimes rise to be the next Falcone or Maroni. Good for you on that, too." She pauses and picks up a cell phone, opening it and checking the call log. "Personally, I view this as a surgical operation. Cutting away the suckers so the leech can't swell up with more blood while you get in a good position to..." And she drops the phone onto the ground and casually smashes it with one boot. "Squish it." For all the lightness and the almost humor in her banter, there is briefly an almost mad look in her eyes as she turns back to Speedy. "Your boyfriend there works for the Maroni family. Low level funder." "You seem to know a lot about the mob. Suits and Sinatra's new territory for me; in Star City, the scumbags are a little more new school. End result isn't really much of a difference... though the mob tends to hide their dirty laundry a little better," Speedy says. "I like the crossbow, by the way. Been training with a couple myself... GA thinks it's cheating, but I wouldn't mind having something a little more portable." "There's no such thing as /cheating/." Huntress snorts, breaking the crossbow down and clasping it back on her thigh. "This isn't a game. A corpse never wonders how it got so cold, or marvels at the difference between a longbow and a crossbow. Nor is it any less of a sin in God's eyes." And a hand briefly touches the cross she bears, before she straightens up and dusts off her hands, lifting her right to show the small hook attached to the wrist. "Besides, a crossbow is easier for a woman. Even at our fittest, we don't have the upper body strength men do to pull a longbow. I can get as much power in city distances with a crossbow with half the strain." "With trick arrows, you don't need quite quite as much range, so my bow's got a bit of a lighter pull than GA's," Speedy says, and shrugs. The God makes her eyebrows raise a little, though the expression is covered by her mask. She smiles a little. "If God's what drives you to do some good around here, good on you. I kinda have a hard time buying into the religion thing, myself. Pretty sure I'd be tempting fate by going near a church anyway. If he does exist, I'd be a lightning rod if I got too close." "God has nothing to do with this. Or that." And she jerks her head towards the guy that's bleeding in the corner. "I don't know if He would be ashamed or amused, but either way, He has nothing to do with what I do." She glances at the window. "Perhaps we should leave before our friend's friends come to see if he's still alive. Or the Batman decided to swing down. Besides, I need to go work on a pet project." "I was about to say the same," says Speedy. "I stay around anywhere too long, I risk having to pick out a new codename," she jokes, and gives the woman a smile. "See you around. Unless Batman asks, then I saw nothing." Category:Logs